Apple Swells, Market Sells — Monday’s IP Market Recap

by Marc Bastow | September 17, 2012 5:18 pm

[1]Last week’s market action was all about the European Central Bank making nice across the continent and our own Ben Bernanke coming to the rescue again by announcing another round of monetary easing[2]. The result was a run-up that took the markets to levels not seen since 2007.

This week the action is all about … well, so far, a lot less, with little broader news to move stocks, and on a light trading day due to Rosh Hashanah, markets started the week on a losing note.

The Dow ended down 0.31% at 13,553, while the S&P finished down similarly, by 0.3%, to finish at 1,461. The Nasdaq slid 0.17% to 3,178.

The Nasdaq’s performance was buoyed by another rise in Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL[3]) as consumers rushed to make orders at AT&T (NYSE:T[4]), Verizon (NYSE:VZ[5]) and Sprint (NYSE:S[6]) stores to buy the new iPhone 5, which hits shelves Friday.

Pre-orders placed online[7] exceeded 2 million in the first 24 hours of sale, and AAPL shares flirted with $700 all day before settling in at a still historic high[8] of $699.80. The sales didn’t do very much for the phone carries, however, as all were up fractionally on the day.

Office supply retailer Office Depot (NYSE:ODP[9]) continued a recent run-up[10] as activist investment firm Starboard Value disclosed a 13% stake[11], making it the firm’s biggest shareholder. Starboard sent a letter to Office Depot CEO Neil Austrian trying to make the case that the company is undervalued and the stock price can be improved. Shares rose more than 5% on the day.

Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN[12]) shares took another tumble as a report by Raymond James analyst Aaron Kessler suggested Groupon’s customer base [13]was far from satisfied, and up to 40% indicated they would not run another Groupon-sponsored deal for another year or so. Shares of GRPN fell nearly 10% on the day.

Finally, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss — the twins who famously sued CEO Mark Zuckerberg while in college over the idea for Facebook (NASDAQ:FB[14]) — will invest $1 million[15] of their roughly $65 million settlement fee in SumZero, a financial trading and research social website founded by co-defendant and college classmate Divya Narendra.

Three Up

• Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA[16]): Up 7.1% ($2.15) to $32.54.
• BroadSoft (NASDAQ:BSFT[17]): Up 5.8% ($2.33) to $42.60.
• Manchester United (NYSE:MANU[18]): Up 4.1% (51 cents) to $12.96.

Three Down

• Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX[19]): Down 5.8% ($3.50) to $57.02.
• First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR[20]): Down 5.6% ($1.37) to $23.24.
• OpenTable (NASDAQ:OPEN[21]): Down 5.5% ($2.70) to $46.50.

Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he was long AAPL and VZ.

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2012/09/apple-swells-market-sells-mondays-ip-market-recap-aapl-vz-t-odp-grpn/

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